Tobey Maguire’s superhero movie Spider-man is one of the most iconic movies in the past years. It skyrocketed the career graph of the actor and the female lead Kirsten Dunst. The film was appreciated for the amazing graphics and the high jumps of the web-slinger. Among the various scenes that went viral among the fans, there was a cafeteria scene that is still fresh in the minds of the fans.
Sam Raimi’s epic superhero film has been a fan favorite for many reasons, and one of them is the dedication of the actors to the scenes. Kirsten Dunst opened up on the number of attempts to master the epic scene.
Tobey Maguire took 16 hours to master a scene in Spider-man
Among the several memorable scenes in the film, there is one where Peter gets his new powers. The scene took place in the school cafeteria, where Mary Jane was seen carrying a tray with her food. As she walks past Peter, her foot slips on spilled juice. Peter quickly held her and caught all the food that went flying, on the tray with one hand. The scene almost felt like a CGI effect, but it turned out it was a real stunt. As per reports, the stunt was done by the talented actor with 156 takes, which took up to 16 hours to shoot.
As per reports, the team had initially planned to do the scene digitally, however, Raimi, or a crew member, suggested the idea to do it manually. They suggested dropping all the food above the camera, and Tobey had to collect them precisely. Raimi and the company took this as a challenge and decided to do the scene perfectly.
Kirsten Dunst shared in the DVD commentary of the movie,
“Not CGI, by the way, that’s all Tobey, which is pretty impressive. They used sticky glue stuff to stick his hand to the tray.”
Kirsten Dunst added that they used sticky glue so that Maguire’s hand would stick to the tray and catch the items without a problem. She said things like jello and sandwich were glued to the plate for ease, however, it was not as simple as it looked.
Sam Raimi had to fight with Sony Pictures to keep the scene in Tobey Maguire’s Spider-man
When the shoot for the scene was going on, Raimi was involved in an argument with Sony to convince them to keep the scene. Allegedly, Sony felt that the scene was taking too much time and required lots of resources to shoot. But Raimi stood his ground and did not want the 16 hours of hard work to go to waste. He knew CGI would not have done justice with the scene and decided to take a chance. The tray-catching scene became one of the most loved ones in the film, and Raimi proved his worth with the film.
Tobey Maguire’s Spider-man is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.
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